I said last year I’d be doing the r/fantasy bingo, which runs from April to the end of March. I’ve completed it, mostly, except for the SFF-related nonfiction square. I know you can replace one square with any from a previous year but if I’m being honest, I don’t really have the energy to go look for previous ones, and I’d rather just admit I’ve not done the one square. 24 out of 25 prompts feels pretty good if I’m being honest!
I also lost track of which ones I managed in regular or hard mode, and sometimes I have the regular+hero (review) mode. I had a tracker in my planner, with little star stickers, but I switched reading journals and planners with the beginning of 2022 so it’s weird to go back…
It ended up being mostly reading whatever I wanted and then matching it to the prompts. I think if I do it again this year, I’ll try to assign books from my TBR to the card first, then tick them off, it feels more in the spirit of the game.
Let’s have a look at what I read!
Line 1:
5 or more short stories: The Best SFF of the Year (2018) ed. Jonathan Strahan
Set in Asia: The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, by Zen Cho
A Selection from the r/Fantasy A to Z Genre Guide: The Poppy War, by R.F. Kuang
Found Family: The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune
First Person POV: Six Crimson Cranes, by Elizabeth Lim
Line 2:
Book Club OR Readalong Book: Ancillary Justice, by Anne Leckie
New to Me Author: Local star, by Aimee Ogden
Gothic fantasy: A Dowry of Blood, by S.T. Gibson
Backlist Book: Bryony and Roses, by T. Kingfisher (2015)*
Revenge-seeking character: The Jasmine Throne, by Tasha Suri
*I’d originally had Moving pictures, by Terry Pratchett, in this prompt. However, because you can’t repeat authors, I then didn’t have any book for the Witches prompt (that wasn’t also a repeat). I’ve been basically reading any T. Kingfisher book from her backlist that I could get my hands on, though, so it made a lot of sense to put one of her books in here.
Line 3
Mystery plot: Fugitive Telemetry, by Martha Wells
Comfort Read: The Galaxy and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers
Published in 2021: Scales and Sensibility, by Stephanie Burgis
Cat Squasher (500+ pages): Legendborn, by Tracy Deonn (501 pages exactly!)
SFF-related nonfiction: ❌
Line 4
Latinx or Latin American Author: Gods of Jade and Shadow, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Self-Published: Tales of Lunis Aquaria, by Tessa Hastjarjanto
Forest Setting: Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik
Genre Mashup: Witchmark, by C.L. Polk (romance, mystery, fantasy)
Has Chapter Titles: The City We Became, by N.K. Jemisin
Line 5
A __ of __ : A Master of Djinn, by P. Djéli Clark
First Contact: Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
Trans or nonbinary character: Cemetery Boys, by Aiden Thomas
Debut Author: The Unbroken, by C.L. Clark
Witches: A Hat Full of Sky, by Terry Pratchett
And that is it for this year’s r/fantasy bingo! It did challenge me to think about the books I was reading, and to try to read outside the box. For instance, I’d have expected to read more books about witches, or with forest settings, but not repeating authors for different prompts did make it a bit trickier to fill the card. Having a few blogger friends who were also doing it made it more fun too, as we could talk about what we read and share tips for filling a specific prompt. I’ll likely try it again this year!
